Chapter 70

Word of two seized school buses reaches the Eden Academy faculty. Henry Henderson confirms the police have been alerted, volunteers to notify the headmaster, and asks his colleagues to keep the crisis away from both the student body and the press.

Aboard the bus, Billy Squire patrols the aisle carrying a shotgun while the hostages' panicked thoughts crash into Anya's telepathy hard enough to alarm Becky and catch Damian's attention. Bill Watkins rises to steady his classmates, reminding them how valuable their parents are and that rescue must be coming. A rifle in his face silences him, but the effect holds: calmer children mean quieter minds and relief for Anya. Billy then explains himself. The students' lives are leverage against the government, and cooperation will send everyone home alive. He tells them to pray their powerful families come through, and Anya's thoughts drift to Yor and Loid.

At a WISE safe house, Sylvia Sherwood hears the news and initially plans to let the police handle it, until the agent mentions that both Damian and Anya are hostages. She orders intelligence gathered so WISE can help from behind the scenes, ruling out Twilight since another mission has him away from Berlint.

Anya tries mining the hijackers' minds for their route and comes up empty, so she loudly announces a bathroom emergency. The stunt works: the driver Vadim mentally rehearses the destination, Papier Palace Park, and Anya passes it to Becky under the cover story of lip reading. The girls draft a warning note. Anya's handwriting proves useless, so Becky writes it, seals it in her candy tin with her student ID and her family's emergency code, and waits for an opening. Damian, suspicious of their whispering, trades notes with them, then buys them a distraction by claiming he also needs a bathroom. The tin sails out the window and lands where bystanders discover it.

Billy catches the girls in the act. When they play dumb, he locks a device around Anya's neck and announces to the bus that it is a bomb, one he will trigger at the first sign of resistance.

Eden Academy learns of the hijacking and moves to contain the news; Henderson takes charge of informing the headmaster.

Bill Watkins stands up to calm the hostages, easing the mental noise overwhelming Anya.

Sylvia commits WISE to covert support after learning Anya and Damian are on the bus.

Anya telepathically learns the destination is Papier Palace Park, and Becky's note in a candy tin reaches people outside.

Billy fastens a collar bomb onto Anya as punishment and deterrent.

Mission 70 runs 19 pages in Volume 11, released October 31, 2022, as part of the Bus Hijacking Arc, and is adapted in Episode 44. The cover features Henry Henderson alongside three other Eden staff members.

The Blackbell family's emergency code, 8814, is a Japanese wordplay: the numbers' first syllables spell "yabai yo," meaning dangerous. The original English digital release also carried an art error on page 16, a stray white mark above Damian's head, corrected in the volume printing.